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13 for ’13: A Baker’s Dozen of PR To-Do’s

Now that your personal New Year’s Resolutions are sealed, it’s time to think about what sort of impact you plan to make this year for your company, your stakeholders and, just as importantly, for yourself. To help, I’ve compiled 13 action items, in the hope that a few of these will resonate with you. I recently read that it takes 66 days for a habit to form to the point it becomes subconscious, so when you try these ideas below, give it until mid-March to assess if you’ve been successful. That’s assuming you’ll start on this list now….

Learn your company’s business mission and make sure your PR is aligned with that mission and the 2013 goals; your communications efforts are less meaningful if they have only a marginal impact on your organization.

If you can accomplish the item above, then it’s time to fight for a bigger PR budget.

Talk to a journalist at least once a day – either in person or by phone to get in the rhythm of always developing and improving media relationships.

Understand the Barcelona Principles. They are important to your communications measurement efforts and will elevate Public Relations in the business sphere.

Befriend your IT department since your online content is dependent on the back-end systems working.

Always be learning: take time at least once a month to listen to a Webinar, attend a conference, read a business book.

Become financially savvy: whether it’s for your clients or for your department, understand a P/L (profit/loss) statement and be comfortable speaking about revenues, profit and margins.

Give time: mentor someone and/or volunteer your time to a cause you care about and don’t look for credit and applause for your efforts.

Hone your business writing skills every day and read other good writers for ideas on how best to articulate your internal or external messages.

Spend at least 15 minutes every day on social media – if you don’t tweet, post something on Facebook; if you don’t share a story on LinkedIn, pin a photo on Pinterest; if you don’t write a blog, comment on someone else’s. Or conduct a listening campaign, soaking in the social media conversation around you. Fifteen minutes is not a lot of time to flex your social media muscles.

Collaborate with Marketing – this could be the year to break down the silos between PR and Marketing, so plan a meeting to discuss integrated communications ideas.

Shorten your daily task list – give yourself a break and accomplish a few things each day that matter rather than a lot of things that don’t.

What would you add to this list? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.